Ladies Day Best Dressed turns heads

As most of the British Flat racing fans flocked to Royal Ascot recently, Ripon Racecourse staged their own ‘Royal Ascot of the North Ladies’ Day’ with local woman Michelle Metcalfe being crowned Ripon’s Best Dressed Lady 2016.

One of the highlights on Ripon Races season, Ladies’ Day is certainly up there with one of the Harrogate District’s social events of the summer and this year was no different as over 3,500 people turned out for the meeting.

As always, one of the main events of Ladies’ Day is the Best Dressed and Best Hat competitions.

Over 50 took part in the annual competitions which were judged by local Stray FM radio DJ Will Smith and Milliner Jenny Roberts.

“The team had the difficult job of selecting their final ten but Daphne Corbin took the crown of Ripon’s Best Hat with a stunning navy headpiece and in return received a private Millinery Taster Course for herself and three friends at the studio of Harrogate Milliner Jenny Robert, where they will design and create a headpiece of their very own and be introduced to the spectacular world of making hats,” said a racecourse spokesman.

In the Best Dressed competition final it was local racegoer Michelle Metcalfe from Norwood, Harrogate who was crowned as Ripon’s Best Dressed Lady 2016 taking home the grand prize of £1,500.

Michelle, who was wearing a stunning dress by Eliza Wyke who is a dressmaker in Harrogate, shoes were from the bridal boutique in Harrogate and she had them and her handbag dyed to match her hat. Her gloves were from Catherine Smith Vintage.

Michelle will now go on to represent Ripon at the Yorkshire Best Dressed Competition in October.

The prizes for the overall winner includes a luxury two night break in a Spa Suite with treatments included at the Best Western Premier Mount Pleasant Hotel, Doncaster, an exquisite diamond ring, with a value of £2,500 courtesy of loveVintagediamonds.com and a £500 voucher for leading designer boutique Yasmine of Bawtry and Epworth.

The day had a slight sporting distraction and it wasn’t the normal fanfare and glamour of Royal Ascot, who also host their Ladies’ Day the same day.

With Roy Hodgson’s England team taking on Wales in the Euro 2016 group clash at 2pm, it was clear that a lot of Ripon’s loyal racegoers would be elsewhere cheering on the England.

But the racecourse embraced the game and even had their own dedicated screen to show all the live action from the game to create a mix of sporting action and glamour with over 300 guests.